president obama's got a 2 percentage point lead, 49-24. in all of these polls, we see that mitt romney is roughly even with the president on the -- who can best manage the economy. on their favorable ratings, mitt romney's has improved, but in each case the lead the president has among women is spllightly larger than the lead mitt romney has among men. simen? >> john, thank you. >>> let's move from sandy and the road to recovery. baby steps i'm afraid still being taken in the city of new york today, including reports that manhattan power may be back online during the course of the weekend. until then, things appear to be getting tense. our senior correspondent scott cohn joins me now from lower manhattan. scott, i just heard firsthand that some residential buildings are now hiring armed guards because of the type of threat that they have faced from people attempting to loot as, of course, the police make those very regular trips during the night. >> reporter: that's entirely possible, simon. i haven't seen that directly, but i believe it.